Park Writing 100.012
Hyun Young Park
Paper #4
Professor Sessolo
Writing 100
Humans continue the deforestation for their own benefits. As much as forests “ of amazing diversity and productivity”
provide benefits, clearing the land also provides benefits such as roads and urban areas, and farms and pastures. It comes a lot more beneficial when it comes to a large area, or 7% of the Earth’s dry land. A wide space can provide the world’s most critical materials such as fuel and timber. However, serious global problems, such as extinction of animals and plants, futile soil, and social conflict, are inevitable.
Because certain species live in specific regions, extinction comes to those species when deforestation happens. Species extinction is the greatest threat to mankind because biodiversity makes up the “majority of life on Earth.” People underestimate the serious problems that mass extinction causes, which overcome its “contributor” global working. Though it is slower in some countries, modest extinction measure says that the current rate of extinction is 10 times faster than the previous years. According to the “Tropical Deforestation” written by Rebecca Lindsey, half of the species’ population lives on tropical forests. Though this article acknowledges benefits deforestation brings, it emphasizes the negative biodiversity impacts through sentences such as “
Their specialization makes them vulnerable to extinction.”
For example, Abies bracteata only lives in the Evergreen forest “between the Tropic of Cancer (North) and Tropic of
Capricorn (South) where the area is wet and warm, “under the Sun’s most direct rays.”
Abies bracteata will extinct when the Evergreen forest is cleared. In addition, hot winds caused by removal of trees not only kill, but extinct plants and animal according to Lindsey who says, “ The
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Park Writing 100.012 edges of the fragments dry out and are buffeted by hot winds; mature rainforest trees often die standing at the margins. Cascading changes in the types of trees, plants, and insects that can survive in the fragments rapidly reduce biodiversity in the forest that remains.”
As one of the human beings who live in the “sixth great extinction”, I believe that an effort should be put to stop the extinction of plants and animals in “the fragments of forest that remain also become increasingly vulnerable, sometimes even committed, to extinction.”
Deforestation also impacts global markets. Forest is storage of a lot of resources. We can get as much resources from the forest, such as latex, cork, fruit, nuts, timber, fibers, spices, natural oils, resins, and medicines, as we can get from deforestation. “
Hidden in the genes of plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria that have not even been discovered yet may be cures for cancer and other diseases or the key to improving the yield and nutritional quality of foods.”
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, there are more resources in the forest that can provide the 10 billion earth’s population. “
Genetic diversity in the planetary gene pool is crucial for the resilience of all life on Earth to rare but catastrophic environmental events, such as meteor impacts or massive, sustained volcanism.
”
Soil in rain forests is mostly futile due to high temperature and heavy rains. Nutrients are stored in either plants or floor of the forest. Therefore, what many farmers do when the farming don’t go well, is slash and burn deforestation. This method of deforestation brings ash on the surface of the forest, which can be used for farming. However this will not only raise the flood rates, but also prevents forest from recovery. Nutrition, of course, shouldn’t be expected.
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Park Writing 100.012
Deforestation not only impacts species and soil, but also humans living in the forest.
Native people living in the forest are unpredictable. Therefore, the worst-case scenario will be killing millions of native people who “make their living through subsistence agriculture, hunting and gathering, or through low-impact harvesting of forest products like rubber or nuts.” It also brings conflicts between the “logger, colonizers, and refugees.” Aid regencies and governments try to find consensus to “ what level of human presence…is compatible with conservation goals, how to balance the needs of indigenous peoples… and whether establishing large, pristine, uninhabited protected areas…should be the highest priority of conservation efforts in tropical forests.
” Lindsey also recognizes humans living in the forest. The number of native people living in the forest is unpredictable. My further exploration had me recognize that the worst-case scenario is killing millions of native people who “make their living through subsistence agriculture, hunting and gathering, or through low-impact harvesting of forest products like rubber or nuts.”
Aid regencies and governments are trying to find consensus to “ what level of human presence…is compatible with conservation goals, how to balance the needs of indigenous peoples… and whether establishing large, pristine, uninhabited protected areas…should be the highest priority of conservation efforts in tropical forests.
” In my understanding, people’s safety should be the most prior reason for conserving the forest. Though there are any many possible ways to keep both forests’ abundant resources and species extinction, safety issue must be addressed.
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Park Writing 100.012
Forest is storage of a lot of resources. We can get as much resources from the forest, such as latex, cork, fruit, nuts, timber, fibers, spices, natural oils, resins, medicines, and opportunities.
Destructing these all just for the short term benefits not only extinct and corrupt species and humans, but also brings inevitable changes to our gifts. I, therefore, believe that humans should not continue the deforestation for their benefits, in fact, their loss.
MLA
"Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles." Tropical Deforestation : Feature Articles . Web. 18
Sept. 2012. <http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Deforestation/>.
The Independent . Independent Digital News and Media, n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/animal-extinction--the-greatest-threat-to-mankind-
397939.html>.
"Deforestation." National Geographic . N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Oct. 2012.
<http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestationoverview/>.
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